


24 Hours

by AgentExile



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: (I mean really), Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Secret Relationship, Soft af, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-13 19:20:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14754759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentExile/pseuds/AgentExile
Summary: When a rare weekend off means that the rest of the group head home to spend time with their families, for once secret boyfriends Taeyong and Jaehyun find themselves alone in the dorm.For just one day, they can finally walk around holding hands, curling up together, kissing unabashedly. Cooking, playing the piano, sharing old memories - all the things normal couples get to do. No more hiding.24 hours of perfection.And they’re going to make the most of it.





	24 Hours

‘Turn it _off_!’

   Taeyong’s voice was louder than the alarm - an elongated whine that drowned out the all-but incessant beeping. He shoved his face against Jaehyun’s chest as though it could muffle the noise, pulling the blankets up over his head and groaning against his shirt.

   Jaehyun bit back a laugh, struggling around with the clock. The room was still half dark and sleep blurred his eyes, and he was not used to navigating Taeyong’s remarkably obstructive form when he wanted to hit the snooze in the morning. Usually his boyfriend was tucked away next door, both of their roommates none the wiser about the relationship they were inadvertently coming between.

   But not today.

   Today they could entwine themselves together and lounge around the dorm holding hands and sharing long, languid kisses rather than the tiny, secret moments that they usually had to steal. And then they could coil themselves back together in Jaehyun’s bed for one last night before the others started arriving back the next morning.

   24 hours of heaven.

   ‘I’m trying,’ said Jaehyun, fumbling with the clock and finally stopping the alarm. ‘I’m sorry, I forgot to switch it off last night.’

   ‘Morning ruined,’ Taeyong mumbled against him, winding his arms around his waist and peeking his eyes just above the edge of the blanket.

   _God he looks beautiful like this_ , thought Jaehyun. The world got to see a lot of Taeyong - strong, sexy, charismatic, but also soft, sweet, and cute. But they didn’t get to see _this_ Taeyong: the Taeyong that hadn’t styled his hair and was still squinting with sleep, dressed only in one of Jaehyun’s t-shirts three sizes to big for him. This Taeyong was for his eyes only.

   ‘Mm I think it’s just more time we get to spend awake together,’ Jaehyun mused, hand moving to card gently through his honey-toned hair.

   Taeyong leaned into the touch, closing his eyes. He had managed to negotiate his legs around Jaehyun’s, pulling them so close together that their bodies could have become one. He was clingy at the best of times - a certified koala - but with no risk of anyone catching them, he seemed to have found a new level of commitment.

   ‘I was dreaming about you.’

   Jaehyun looked down at him, stroking the bangs away from his forehead. ‘Oh really? What was I doing?’

   ‘My secret,’ Taeyong yawned. ‘Don’t stop touching,’ he added when Jaehyun shifted an inch and his hand wavered for a second.

   ‘Alright, alright,’ he laughed, trailing his fingers across the lines of his face, through his hair, round his head to knead a tender, slow massage. Taeyong let out a sigh, as contented as he had ever heard him.

   They stayed there for a while - so long that Jaehyun’s right arm had started to go numb and Taeyong had fallen into a doze, breath steadying to the soft, familiar rhythm that Jaehyun recognised so well. Only when the call of the kitchen started to creep into their consciousness did the two of them shift in almost perfect unison.

   Taeyong unravelled himself first, legs swinging off the bed. He stretched out, slender body extending into perfect, artist-drawn lines as he reached to the ceiling, throwing his head back as he rolled his neck. From the bundle of pillows and blankets, his boyfriend just watched, awe-struck eyes working to memorise every detail that he might have missed in the years they’d known each other.

   Had he ever noticed how he shifted his weight from side to side as he worked out his shoulders? Had he ever noticed what his earrings looked like from the back? Had he ever noticed the feathering of hair at the very nape of his neck and the way that it curled a little from the heat of sleep? These details mattered. Jaehyun wanted to imprint them into every facet of his memory.

   ‘You’re staring,’ said Taeyong, without turning around.

   ‘Yes, yes I am,’ Jaehyun shrugged.

   Taeyong halted his movements, suddenly shy.

   ‘Don’t stop. I love watching you,’ Jaehyun lamented.

   The older turned around, stretching cat-like across the bed to plant a kiss on his lips. ‘Watch me in the kitchen.’

   Jaehyun threw himself out of bed after him - Taeyong’s cooking was always worth moving for.

   Upstairs, the whole building was eerily quiet.

   Living in a dorm with nine young guys meant that the kitchen was almost always full, and usually held a lingering smell of burning from whoever had managed to get to the appliances before Taeyong could take over. The TV was always loud, the squabbles even louder, and music tended to ring out from at least one room.

   Now, the place was silent, except for Taeyong’s quiet little murmurings to himself as he bustled around the kitchen.

   He reached around the backs of cupboards that Jaehyun never ventured into, pulling out the special jars and parcels that he never usually had the time for. Mornings for Taeyong usually meant cooking for nine, which meant _simple._ Today he could stretch his wings, dial up his chef-fingers, make something special.

   Jaehyun watched him work with focussed, interested eyes. A smile crept onto his face whenever Taeyong overstretched - after all, his tee might be big, but it didn’t cover much when he was reaching for the top cupboards.

   Taeyong placed down banchan after banchan, the small bowls clinking together, the kitchen air filled with the smells of all of Jaehyun’s favourite foods.

   ‘Are you done?’ he smiled, when Taeyong finally flopped down onto a seat opposite him.

   ‘Everything has to be perfect - it’s our special day.’

   ‘We could stay in one room and do nothing all day and it would still be perfect, Yongie. As long as you’re with me, I wouldn’t change a thing.’

   That being said, Taeyong was a genius in the kitchen and this morning was no different.

   They ate in relative calm, both enjoying the quiet.

   ‘This is amazing,’ Jaehyun eventually breathed, heart swelling in line with his stomach. Having Taeyong cook for him held this special weight in his chest - a new sort of intimacy.

   ‘Thanks, Hyunnie,’ Taeyong said shyly.

   Jaehyun reached out, taking his hand and pulling him out to the living room with him. He was determined to enjoy every single room before the day was out - he needed to store a memory of Taeyong and himself alone together in every space, images that he could visualise whenever he was walking through the dorm in the future.

   He switched on the TV, turning straight to one of the terrible daytime shows that he knew his boyfriend loved to watch. Collapsing down onto the couch, he caught Taeyong’s wrist.

   The smaller fell down on top of him, light, bright laugh filling the room.

   ‘Be careful with me,’ Taeyong whined, giggles chasing between his lips as he tried to look serious, ‘I’m only small.’

   This - _this_ \- was so addictive from Taeyong. Jaehyun loved how even though he was younger, even though he was quieter, he could still make Taeyong feel small enough to fit snugly into his arms. Taeyong didn’t show this vulnerable side to anyone else, and whenever it escaped he would flush or hide his face, but with Jaehyun he loved it, owned it, embraced it in comfort.

   ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got you my love,’ Jaehyun said, bundling him up in his arms.

   Taeyong curled up, cheek against his chest, eyes trained on the TV screen but mind really concentrating on the rise and fall of Jaehyun’s breathing.

   ‘Do you remember the first time we sat like this?’ Jaehyun said, the vibration of his chest making Taeyong fidget.

   ‘Mm. We were watching that terrible movie.’

   ‘And you kept sinking further and further down into the couch every time one of the others went to bed, and when Donghyuck finally left you slumped right down on top of me.’

   ‘I think I fell asleep.’

   ‘Yeah, you did. My arm was caught under you and I thought I’d never get the feeling back. I didn’t dare wake you - you looked so goddamn perfect. It would have been like waking an angel. You slept right up until Johnny walked in to go and get something to eat at like 3am.’

   ‘You know he’s never looked at us the same since? I reckon he knows.’

   Jaehyun had the sneaking suspicion that _most_ of them knew. However, he knew it would make Taeyong anxious if he mentioned it, so he just smiled. ‘Maybe. We’re very sly though.’

   It had started shortly after debut, really. Maybe even before. Jaehyun couldn’t remember at what point he had transitioned from loving Taeyong to being _in_ love with him. It was certainly early. But the first kiss hadn’t happened until much later, after the Countdown win for Cherry Bomb, when enough Soju had combined with enough excitement to result in Taeyong on his lap and a hastily closed door in their dressing room as confessions spilled out into the atmosphere.

   ‘You have your thinking face on,’ said Taeyong, looking up at him. ‘I hope you’re thinking about me.’

   ‘When am I not?’

   ‘What about me?’

   ‘That day in the Countdown dressing room.’

   Taeyong blushed red. ‘Oh… yeah…’

   ‘I’ll never forget the way you looked that day. Thank god for your bad tolerance - otherwise we might have gone round and round in circles for another few years.’

   ‘I was so drunk.’

   ‘And so beautiful.’

   Jaehyun leaned down, kissing his forehead, hands lowering to stroke across his chest - waist - hips - anything he could touch. Taeyong tilted up his jaw to indicate a direction, and Jaehyun moved his lips to his, the angle leaving their kiss open-mouthed, breathy but _easy_. Kissing Taeyong was always so easy, like it was the one thing Jaehyun had been born to do.

   It also took up a lot of time - too much time - by the time they next looked at the clock they had wasted half the day just nestled together on the sofa, hands relearning each other’s bodies, lips remoulding to each other’s design.

   ‘What are we going to do this evening?’

   ‘I have a few ideas,’ said Jaehyun, thumbs circling over Taeyong’s pointed hips.

   ‘Not _that_ ,’ he swatted him away, ‘do you want to go out? Or I can cook for you again? I’ll cook you anything.’

   ‘Or we can order in and you can actually have a rest for once,’ said Jaehyun gently. ‘Not that your cooking isn’t the best,’ he added.

   ‘Let’s get Chinese then - from that good place, you know the one.’

   Yes, he knew the one. It was the place he went to whenever Taeyong was sick and the others were at a loss as to what to cook for him because usually he was the one who took care of everyone else. It was the place he went to whenever Taeyong was sad or missing his family or stressed from work. It was the place he went to when the others were arguing so loudly about where to order from that Taeyong’s softer, quieter voice couldn’t be heard over the rabble even though Jaehyun knew that he really, _really_ wanted Chinese.

   So yes, he knew the place.

   ‘I’ll order for you,’ Jaehyun said, fingers interlinking with Taeyong’s and tracing over the back of his hands where the blue of veins was just visible. He brushed over the lines, then over each knuckle, _memorising_ again.

   ‘I love your hands,’ said Taeyong, watching. ‘They make mine look small.’

   ‘You are small, remember? We’ve had this conversation.’

   ‘I love watching them play. Play for me, Jae.’

   Piano. Another thing that he so rarely had the chance to enjoy in peace.

   ‘Okay, let me get the food and then we’ll make some music.’

*

By the time that the boxes were empty, the dorm was half-dark, but they hadn’t turned on the lights.

   ‘I can’t move,’ Taeyong groaned, rolling back on the couch.

   ‘Good thing you don’t have to, my love,’ said Jaehyun, taking his hand and kissing his palm, then his wrist, then a little further up his arm until Taeyong squirmed away. ‘You just have to listen.’

   He walked over to the piano, taking a seat at the stool and feeling his boyfriend’s eyes firmly on his back. Taeyong was watching intently, elbows propped on the arm of the couch so that he could rest his chin on his hands.

   It took a few discordant, experimental pathways before he found his rhythm, settling into the familiar map of sound laid out in front of him. He closed his eyes, fingers leading the way to artistry, searching through the darkness for the songs that Taeyong loved the most.

   After a while, he felt arms snake around his neck, Taeyong’s chin dropping down onto his shoulder.

   ‘That’s very distracting, you know.’

   ‘Now you know how I feel watching you in dance practice,’ Taeyong breathed into his ear, ‘especially when you take your jacket off.’

   So he may have started doing that more and more often after he’d noticed how much Taeyong watched when he flexed…

   ‘I like having a strong boyfriend.’

   ‘How strong?’

   ‘Strong enough to pick me up and carry me away somewhere special - some other world where we don’t have to hide anything and we can walk down the street holding hands and - ’

   Jaehyun stopped playing, turning around and settling his hands on Taeyong’s waist, pulling him closer between his legs until his face was round about level with Taeyong’s chest. He rested his forehead there, feeling his heartbeat through his shirt. ‘I’d carry you to paradise if I could, Yongie.’

   ‘It’s a nice daydream,’ Taeyong sighed, fingers lacing into Jaehyun’s hair. ‘My little fantasy.’

   ‘Maybe we can start… start with being able to hold hands around here…’

   Taeyong looked down at him with wide eyes. ‘Like… tell the others?’

   ‘They wouldn’t mind, sweetheart. They’d accept us for who we are, you know that.’

   He nodded, biting his lip. ‘It would definitely… make things easier.’

   _Progress_. This was serious progress.

   ‘But not today,’ Taeyong added quickly, ‘this is our day.’

   ‘Yeah it is. I’m not spending a single moment thinking about anything but you. Talking to anyone but you. Touching anyone but you.’

   ‘Well you’ll have to catch me first,’ Taeyong grinned, edging back until Jaehyun’s hands dropped from his hips. Taeyong loved to be chased, and Jaehyun loved to oblige. He started to skip backwards, laughing brightly as the taller launched after him, following him around the couch, around the kitchen, around the landing, around the table.

   Taeyong was stunning like this. Laughing openly, no hand flying up to hide his face, sound echoing in the quiet dorm. This was a smile so pure that it made Jaehyun’s heart ache - not the face he put on for the cameras or even for the others, but a special, secret smile that he reserved just for moments like this.

   He gasped with a laugh as Jaehyun almost caught the hem of his shirt, but he darted out of the way, diving around the kitchen island. Small meant agile, and Jaehyun only had to _half_ let him win.

   ‘Not as strong as you look,’ Taeyong mused, face pink with energy, ‘you can’t even catch me.’

   ‘I don’t need to, Yongie. You’re already mine.’

   Taeyong watched him, slightly out of breath. After a pause: ‘I don’t even remember a time when you didn’t have my heart, Hyunnie,’ he said quietly.

   ‘And I can’t even envision a time in the future where you don’t have mine.’

   ‘Alright, alright, yeah, you caught me,’ he conceded at the words, as Jaehyun crossed the rest of the space and wrapped his arms around him. He lifted him easily, sitting him down on the counter and resting his hands on his knees. Taeyong looked down, hands linking round the back of Jaehyun’s neck and threading through the hair there. ‘Love you, Jae.’

   ‘I love you more.’

   ‘Do not.’

   ‘Do too.’

   ‘I really love you.’

   ‘I know, Yongie. I see my love reflected right back every time I look in your eyes.’

   ‘I don’t want this day to end,’ Taeyong said sadly, pouting a little.

   Jaehyun squeezed his thighs gently. ‘There are going to be so many more days like this, my angel. I promise. Once the others know, we can do this all the time.’

   Taeyong pulled a face. ‘Yeah, like I want to do _this_ with Johnny and Yuta making kissy noises in the background.’

   ‘You can just ignore them. They should all be jealous anyway.’

   ‘Jealous that I got you?’

   ‘No, silly. Jealous that _I_ got you. The whole world wants you, but somehow I’m the only one you look at like… this.’

   There were no words to describe the look in Taeyong’s eyes when he looked at him. There was the love he’d mentioned, and the thrill of honey-moon like excitement that didn’t seem to have worn off yet, but there was so much more. When they were alone, Taeyong looked at him like he was the centre of his universe, the axis on which he turned.

   Jaehyun couldn’t put it into words, but he didn’t need to. He understood. Because he felt exactly the same thing looking at Taeyong.

*

   With the day almost over, they could have been sad. But with the promise of a future, the glimmer of some kind of freedom on the horizon even if it was just here in the dorm, both of them were smiling.

   ‘This was the best day ever,’ said Taeyong, adopting his favourite position in the bed, curled against Jaehyun’s form just as he had been when they had been rudely awakened so many hours earlier.

   ‘So far. The days are only going to get better.’

   ‘So long as you’re here,’ he said, nuzzling against Jaehyun’s neck.

   ‘I’m always going to be here. You’re my world. And one can’t exist separate to their world.’

   ‘Did I mention I love you?’

   ‘You can say it again.’

   ‘Thanks for all this, Hyunnie. For today. Thanks for making it so special.’

   ‘Thanks for turning up. You did all the work. You could make any place in the world special just by your presence.’

   Taeyong laughed against him, shaking his head a little at the cliché.

   ‘Oh, and one more thing.’ Jaehyun took Taeyong into his arms, flipping him onto his back and leaning over him. He kissed down his nose, his jaw, then once more ghosting across his lips. ‘You know… if you want… while we still have the place to ourselves?’

   Taeyong looked up at him with a warm, excited spark in his eyes, hands sliding to find a hold on Jaehyun’s arms. ‘Finally,' he said. 'I thought you’d never ask.’

**Author's Note:**

> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/taemayy)   
>  [Curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/mayviolet)


End file.
